Planned Parenthood Loses Rehearing Bid in Texas Funding Cutoff

By Laurel Brubaker Calkins -
Oct 26, 2012

Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas
lost a bid for a rehearing before the full federal appellate
court in New Orleans, where a three-judge panel ruled the state
can immediately bar the clinics from participating in a public
health program for poor women.

Planned Parenthood had asked the full court to review the
panel’s August decision, which lifted a temporary injunction
that prevented Texas from cutting off state funds until a trial
can be held on the issue. A trial scheduled in Austin for this
month was delayed until the appellate court made a final ruling.

The appeals court yesterday denied the clinics’ request in
a one-page order that offered no explanation. U.S. Circuit Judge
Grady Jolly checked a box on the page indicating no Fifth
Circuit judge had asked that the members of the court be polled
on Planned Parenthood’s rehearing petition.

Texas lawmakers barred Planned Parenthood from a program
that provides health care to thousands of low-income women
because it claims the clinics are affiliated with abortion
providers. While the 49 Texas clinics banned from the program
don’t provide abortion services, the state said their close
affiliation with a national pro-choice group such as Planned
Parenthood undermined the state’s pro-life public policy
position.

Free Speech

Planned Parenthood sued Texas on claims the state was
violating the clinics’ constitutional rights of free speech and
association.

“Today a unanimous appeals court rightfully recognized
that the taxpayer-funded Women’s Health Program is not required
to subsidize organizations that advocate for elective
abortion,” Lauren Bean, a spokeswoman for Texas Attorney
General Greg Abbott, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.
She said the Austin judge should set a date “in the very near
future” to begin the trial on the merits of the case.

“This case has never been about Planned Parenthood -- it’s
about the Texas women who turn to us every day,” Kenneth
Lambrecht, president of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas,
said in an e-mailed statement. “Politics should never come
between a woman and her health care, but in this decision, which
conflicts with Supreme Court precedent, it appears it has.”

Adopted Rule

On Oct. 18, Texas adopted its “affiliate ban rule” which
will formally bar the Planned Parenthood clinics from the state-
funded program when the rule takes effect next week, Lambrecht
said. Under the new rule, Texas will pay 100 percent of the
costs of its low-income women’s health program, to avoid
complying with an Obama administration directive that tied
continued federal funding to the Planned Parenthood clinics’
ability to remain as state-authorized providers in the program,
he said.

“If Texas officials would restore Planned Parenthood as a
women’s health provider, 90 percent of that cost would be borne
by the federal government,” Lambrecht said. He said the
organization had no plans to close clinics or exit the state.

“We’re not going anywhere,” he said.

The ruling “affirms yet again that in Texas the Women’s
Health Program has no obligation to fund Planned Parenthood and
other organizations that perform or promote abortion,” Governor
Rick Perry said in an e-mailed statement. “In Texas we choose
life, and we will immediately begin defunding all abortion
affiliates to honor and uphold that choice.”

The district court case is Planned Parenthood of Hidalgo
County Texas v. Suehs, 12-00322, U.S. District Court, Western
District of Texas (Austin). The appeals court case is Planned
Parenthood of Hidalgo County Texas v. Suehs, 12-50377, U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (New Orleans).

To contact the reporter on this story:
Laurel Brubaker Calkins in Houston at
laurel@calkins.us.com.